#AskTheMayor: Halloween 'Masks', Rebuilding BOE, Future of Remote Learning

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Brian Lehrer: It's the Brian Lehrer show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Time now as usual on Fridays for our weekly, Ask The Mayor call in right after the 11 o'clock news. My questions and yours for mayor, Bill de Blasio. Our lines are open for your mayor questions at 646-435-7280, 646-435-7280. You can also tweet a question with #AskTheMayor and we'll watch our Twitter feed go by. Good morning, Mr. Mayor, welcome back to WNYC.

Bill de Blasio: Good morning, Brian. How are you doing?

Brian: I'm doing okay. Unfortunately, let's start on the troubling rise that you announced yesterday and the virus positivity rate to a 2.7% rate for the previous day and it's up to 1.9% as a daily average for the week. It's at a 3% threshold. Another whole point where the policy is that you would close the schools and more businesses too, do you have any new daily numbers yet today?

Bill: Yes, let me go over today's indicators are actually somewhat better than what we saw yesterday, and let's always note that the up and down of every day's testing you expect some variation there. The truest measure is the seven-day rolling average. Just a quick run-through hospital admissions are down. 68 is the number today, that's good down from 81 yesterday, the amount of positive cases, percentage of positive cases for COVID down is at 18.9% compared to 26% yesterday among those hospital admissions.

Reported cases down 514 today compared to 532 yesterday. Overall testing down it's 1.57% for the one-day testing period, 1.57% compared to 2.7% yesterday, which was really a striking figure but looks aberrant now. Then the overall testing. This is the key one, the seven-day rolling average, 1.87% down from 1.92% yesterday. A little bit of stabilizing, a little bit of better news today, but we've got a long way to go, and the key point Brian, is look what's happened around the country. Look at even more shockingly what's happening in Europe.

We need to take this very seriously if we're going to stop a second wave here. I know we can stop a second way, but it's going to take a lot of discipline and recognizing we're not going to be able to do everything we'd like to do in the short-term, but we have to hold the line and stop a second wave here in New York City.

Brian: You're warning people against indoor Halloween activities. By the way, listeners, after the mayor, we're going to have a call in on what you're going as for Halloween and your zoom parade or whatever you're doing, how you staying safe, but also how are you having fun on Halloween. That'll be after the mayor, but you're warning people against indoor trick or treating and other gatherings on Halloween tomorrow, but also about Thanksgiving and Christmas. Could you repeat that here so everyone hears it?

Bill: Yes, thank you, Brian. One, there's definitely a great way to celebrate Halloween and that's stay outdoors. Stay in small groups, socially distance wear a mask. In fact, with children is important to on top of the costume, put the mask over

the costume so they really are protected. You can go trick or treating. You can be outdoors celebrating, but small groups, smart precautions, but no indoor gatherings. That's just too dangerous. Avoid indoor gatherings, avoid parties. We cannot have large gatherings at all.

For the holidays, I hate to say it and I'm going to apply the same standard to myself and I'm saying it with the pain I think everyone would feel, we're so used to going to see our loved ones at the holidays, but this is not the year for it. Pretty much everywhere else in the country is doing worse than us when it comes to the Coronavirus. By definition, if you go to one of those areas, you're running the risk of contracting the disease and bring it back with you and spreading it here.

I strongly believe New Yorkers should stay here in the city for the holidays. Keep it simple as just for this year, there's going to be a vaccine next year and I further would say on a policy level Brian, it's time for the federal government to do something they should have done a long time ago and not let anyone on an airplane who has not had a recent negative test result.

I really think we need a new federal law or regulation immediately because it's crazy that people are traveling and it's clearly spreading disease and it could be stopped with a simple rule in place. That's the advice I would give to Washington, but also the advice I give to your listeners about what we all need to do personally.

Brian: Just one little thing on what you said and then we'll go on to callers, I also want to ask you about schools with what might be changing in terms of when families can opt back in, you said, wear a mask over your Halloween mask. You can also wear it under your-- Probably wear it under the Halloween mask, under the costume.

Bill: The advice has been I think the doctors are suggesting that over is better protection. I think they're also concerned about making sure people can breathe well. The important point is a mask per se, a typical store-bought Halloween mask is not enough protection. That's the most important point. As I understand the advice our doctors are giving us, they think over probably works better, both in terms of protection and comfort, but the important point is do not rely on a classic plastic superhero mask or something like that. That's not going to protect you.

Brian: That's great. When you're wearing your Giuliani on the bed with Borat’s daughter mask, put your cloth mask or your surgical mask--

Bill: Everyone's going to be wearing that this year, obviously, right?

Brian: I think so. All right. Let's take a phone call on this, Anne in Manhattan, you're on WNYC with the mayor high Anne.

Anne: Good morning. Good morning, Mr. Mayor, it's a pleasure to speak with you. I have a question about masking. I know the MTA's told me it's up to bus drivers to make sure bus passengers wear a mask, although they don't do it, but as a senior and now former poll worker, I'm wondering if your office has any way of enforcing masking and other safety measures at the polls because the board of election is not doing it.

I wasn't able to complete my poll worker assignment at the spring primary election because some of the other poll workers weren't wearing masks, although the board of education and assured me everyone would be masked and socially distance and so on. When I called the board about it later, the man, the poll worker just said, what can you do?

They decided what they could do is fire the messenger because when I inquired recently about training, I was told that after serving for several years I'd been dismissed although they said it was for another completely unrelated reason. I had two questions. First of all, can the city enforce masking at the polls, and will it?

This is a question of safety, not just for poll workers, but for everyone trying to vote in-person this election. When I voted early yesterday, at least five workers who are still not wearing masks or wearing them incorrectly. Also, is there anyone you can suggest I might contact for help getting reinstated as a poll worker, at least after the pandemic because I feel like this was really just retaliation for raising a sensitive issue?

Brian: Anne, thank you.

Bill: Thank you, Anne, and very, very important point you're raising. First of all, please give your information that WNYC and we will follow-up. I think Brian, your listeners know the city of New York does not control the board of elections I wish we did because it's ludicrous what's happening with the board. I want to just say as clear as a bell, the board I used the phrase the day on New York One when it comes to the board elections it's time to end it not mend. This is a entity that is beyond repair, beyond reform. It must be torn down and rebuilt.

The state legislature is the only place that can happen. There's legislation right now in Albany, that would at least help by empowering the executive director of the board to hire more professional staff that would help but really, we need a total overhaul because the board just doesn't work. To Anne's point, and we'll follow up on your specific case and see how we can help you, I'll have our legal team on our democracy NYC team follow-up with you. On the point about mask, look, first of all, the best thing we can do anywhere is distributed free masks.

MTA and the city have working together on that. I think it's actually been very successful with buses and subways, but there's clearly always more to do. Job one is the positive. Give out masks all the time. The enforcement, I understand the point about the bus driver. I'm sure that could be tough, but poll sites, whole another ballgame. It should be very easy to enforce there. We're going to follow-up today, should not be any such thing as a poll worker not wearing a mask. When I went to my early voting site, they did a great job of asking everyone to make sure they had their mask on right before they entered the site.

That needs to be the norm everywhere. We will enforce that for sure. We're going to have a big operation on election day with lawyers and city officials volunteering their time, election observation corps to make sure that there's no intimidation of voters,

no attempts to suppress, particularly in communities of color but I'm also going to instruct them to look out for situations where the board personnel are not enforcing those mask rules because that's a problem. It's a fundamental problem.

The only thing I'll notice, there are some people with a valid medical exception. We understand that, but beyond that, if you walk into a poll site or work in a poll site, you have to have a mask on. That's really straightforward.

Brian: Amir in Fresh Meadows, you're on WNYC with the mayor. Hello, Amir.

Amir: Good morning, Mr. Mayor. Good morning, Brian. Thank you for taking my call. I called approximately six weeks ago and asked you Mr. Mayor about the housing of inmates from Rikers Island at the Wyndham garden and in Fresh Meadows an upscale middle-class neighborhood in Queens. Since then, nothing still has been done to remove these inmates from the hotels since this was supposedly to be a temporary situation.

The contract with the Wyndham ends today, and I was going to ask if you will not sign it so that these inmates can be taken out of the Wyndham and placed back at Rikers Island. According to my representative's office, I was told that they could be placed anywhere temporarily and any hotel in New York City. How long does temporary mean? This has been going on since June. There was a similar situation on the upper West side recently where homeless people were being housed in an upscale hotel.

Their neighborhood was successfully able to remove these people and their neighborhood. What does it take to get these inmates removed from my neighborhood? Why not take the $1.4 million that you contracted with the Wyndham and spend it on renting or leasing cruise ships and keeping them at the Westside terminal temporarily

Brian: Amir, I'm going to leave it there and get you an answer. It's not inmates on the upper Westside at the Lucerne. I think the people from the homeless shelter are still there if I'm not mistaken, Mr. Mayor, but go ahead and answer Amir's question.

Bill: I remember Amir's previous call and we did follow up on it. I don't have all the facts in front of me, so Amir, please give your information to WNYC and we'll get you an update today because I know there was follow-up on the issues you're raising. It's not the same at all as the West side of Manhattan where the issue there was a number of hotels in the same place and also the need to stop using hotels and get people to permanent shelter facilities.

Look, what I do know is the effort to get inmates out of Rikers quickly who could be removed those who because of the specific reality of their sentence running out soon, or the nature of their offense, it was appropriate to remove them or the fact that they had health conditions that made them particularly vulnerable to Coronavirus. We moved out working with the state, working with the DAs, I believe it was approximately 1600 inmates that was the right thing to do in the middle of the worst of the Coronavirus.

Folks, each of those folks is in a different situation. It's not a single approach to each one. There are some people depending on what's happened since then who might end up going back to Rikers for a specific reason, but there's a lot who never would because their sentence has been completed. I think the answer is the typical situation is we're trying to move people to the next step in their lives. They've done their time. We want to help people get back on their feet get them to better housing options. I don't know what's going to happen next with the Wyndham at this hour. Amir, give the information, we'll get you an update and Brian, I'll be able to speak to that more in detail when we next get together.

Brian: Schools, Mr. Mayor, originally, they were going to be two re-entry enrollment periods for remote learners who want to join the hybrid in person model. Then you decided no only one more chance to reenter which would be for the next two weeks starting Monday. Now I read the chance Carranza suggested maybe there would be a later window in addition after all. You know these constant changes in policy keep driving parents crazy to know and what's going on and why?

Bill: I first want to clarify what the chancellor said was just a common sense point that we're dealing with an ever-changing reality with our health indicators as we talked about earlier with a vaccine. There could be big changes that absolutely would call for a re-evaluation. Let me tell you why we changed the immediate policy. I'm going to give you a very straightforward answer and the chancellor and I are going to emphasize this next week when we speak to the people about the details.

Look, what's happened in the schools is we have a certain number of people who have chosen full-time remote. We have a certain number of people who have chosen blended learning and their kids are going to blended learning. Then we have a surprising number of parents who are on the cusp, but they really haven't declared either option formally. We have kids who are signed up for blended or participating more remotely on the days that they are supposed to be in school.

We need to clear all this up for everyone's benefit because one of the realities Brian is that we have school seats that are sitting there during the day when a kid is supposed to be in school at that seat and the kid is instead going remote that day, that's creating a dysfunction we have to address because we can't have a seat going to waste. There's plenty of kids who would like to be in those seats.

We're saying to parents, "Look, we did not anticipate this. We didn't see this coming. It's a different reality. We want everyone now to declare themselves." If something really profound changes out there with the Coronavirus that could lead to a different opportunity. Right now it's time for people to make a decision to schools are safe. It has been proven over and over again. Parents need to decide and with one crucial reminder, if you decide to go all remote, then that's where you're going to be until something changes on the health front.

If you decide to go blended, come in, and actually fully participate. If at any point you decide down the line you would prefer to go to all remote, instead, parents always retain that. Blended still offers you that opportunity down the line, but we've got to get  

people to choose and act on it so we can actually array our staffing properly and get kids best engaged.

Brian: Hang on, Mr. Mayor, and everybody. I4t's amazing that this hasn't happened yet since we've been broadcasting from home, but I'm getting a delivery right at this moment. Just one second, hang on. Everybody is going to be able to hear this.

Bill: Live radio, everyone live radio.

Brian: You can leave it there right outside the door. Thank you so much. There you go.

Bill: You handled that beautifully, Brian.

Brian: There you go. It's a delicate situation. I taped the tip to the outside [crosstalk]. 

Bill: I hope it's a good package.

Brian: Anyway, a follow-up on the schools. A question from a public school parent, with kids who-- I guess this parent has kids who are currently all remote and says the school told them they better sign up for in-person fast because the slots are filling up and if they sign up too late, the kids might be transferred to a different school. Is it just first come first serve for all families until a school reaches it's smaller than normal capacity because of social distance?

Bill: That's not how we would look at it. Actually, it'd be really helpful Brian if your team could pass that information onto the folks that you work with at city hall because that is not the policy. The policy is that we open the door wide for anyone who wants to come into in-person learning in a blended approach. We're going to adjust accordingly depending on the number of people who come in.

Again, we want to make sure that anyone who says they want blended actually wants blended is going to use it so that we're using each seat to the fullest. No, I don't anticipate a situation at all where someone has to go to a different school. We just we'll work with whatever number of kids want to come back and adjust the schedules accordingly.

Brian: You are saying if I understood your initial answer, that the plan as of now is to only have this one re-entry period, but things may change again and you may have another one after the new year.

Bill: Yes. Brian, let's be really clear. Things may change again. Is like the story of the Coronavirus. I've never seen a moving target crisis than this one because constantly, the facts are evolving. Based on what we know right now, this is it. This is the one chance for parents to make a decision because what happened, again, Brian objective facts on the ground. We have too many parents who are straddling the fence and too many kids who are not showing up consistently enough and we need to resolve that once and for all, we can't leave that gray is causing an issue we have to address.

If a major change happens, most notably a vaccine, but it could be other major changes. We'll certainly look at the situation again. That's what the chancellor was referring to. Right now based on the facts on the ground, one opportunity between November 2nd, November 15th, to formally decide, would you rather have your kids back in school and I emphasize proven safe schools, and I'll give you one new fact for the, breaking news.

Brian, we now on our surveys of schools or testing surveys, we're doing every month and every school, 1,200 plus schools, 63,000 tests have yielded only 69 positive individual cases. Basically, coming in at one out of a thousand staff and students are coming back with a positive case. The schools are incredibly safe. Parents who appreciate in-person learning should take this opportunity to sign up and get their kids back to school.

Brian: Patrick in Manhattan. You're on WNYC with the Mayor. Hello Patrick.

Patrick Roblin: Oh, hi. Sorry. You skipped ahead. The audio jump there. Thanks for having me, Brian. Hi, Mr. Mayor, this is Patrick Roblin in Yorkville. Just real quickly so two weeks ago I watched 94th precinct officers brutalize a 20-year-old activist having an asthma attack last week. Cops seized PPEs that was being handed out outside of a polling place. This week we saw the strategic response team surround and smash a car window in Brooklyn with Batons.

When I called six months ago about your NYPD turning into werewolves over the curfew, you mentioned looting and rioting, which is not a very progressive excuse to abuse thousands of people. There's never an excuse for police to hurt non-violent people. That's part of the job. We're about to add 900 cops when we still don't have enough teachers. What makes you think that the NYPD is worth investing in right now? Because they're looking more and more like a group of right-wing vigilantes to me yelling Trump 2020, in uniform, et cetera. I'll take my response up to here. Thanks.

Brian: Thank you very much. I also want to say something to all the listeners who are on hold, because by the luck of the draw, we wound up with two callers today who have identified themselves as having previously gotten on with the mayor. We actually try to not have a lot of repeat callers with the mayor so that many, many, many New Yorkers could get a chance over time. I apologize for that, but it happens, Mr. Mayor, go ahead.

Bill: Yes, we're all humans, Brian, to say at least. Okay, Patrick, I will give him points for having a consistent worldview. I think a lot of his facts are just plain wrong. I'll speak to it quickly. First of all, many of the things you say just doesn't conform with what the facts that I know are. I'll give the example of the poll site and the PPE the other day in Brooklyn, that ended up being a case where there was electioneering happening too close to a poll site, and every effort was made by the poll site workers and the NYPD to convince the people involved to move away and they wouldn't and so their table was moved and had PPE on it. That is not the same thing as taking away PPE from people who need it. It's just a misrepresentation.

I would ask all people, especially progressives, please do some homework before you make allegations about people actually who are trying to do their job the right way. Equally, someone did not do their job the right way. That officer who expects press pro-Trump sentiments was immediately suspended and is going to face some serious consequences for that.

Look, NYPD we need to constantly improve and reform the NYPD. We made a major announcement yesterday with the naming of Juanita Holmes as the chief of patrol now being the highest-ranking woman, uniformed officer in the history NYPD. She will have more officers under her than any woman in American history. Also, the highest-ranking black woman in the history of the NYPD, as well as a number of other women, African Americans, and Latinos who were named yesterday continuing to create a more representative and diverse and responsive NYPD.

There's no question in my mind that that's the right approach, that the way forward. Constant reform, constant changes, discipline when someone does something wrong. Look, I would disagree with Patrick also on a crucial point. Looting is a rarity, but when looting happens, it does need to be addressed very, very effectively. It can't be ignored. It's a real problem. I met those store owners in the South Bronx, who experienced the looting back in the late spring and it was horrible. What it did to them to their livelihoods, to their employees, to their families, these were immigrants store owners who had put their life into their stores. They are not going to tell you that looting is something acceptable, and I agree with them.

We need the NYPD to constantly improve when it comes to its relationship with the community through a neighborhood policing strategy when it comes to disciplining officers to do the wrong thing when it comes to managing peaceful protest properly, but protest that's not peaceful when it turns to violence has to be addressed and we will do that.

Brian: We've talked a lot over the last few months and won't go into it again now about actions that the NYPD has taken at times when the protests were peaceful, but the NYPD actions caught on video appeared not to be and I see there are some lawsuits that got filed this week with respect to that. I also see that police commissioner Shea did some media this morning and was talking about midtown businesses taking in their outdoor tables and such on election night. What are you anticipating and from what side or sides?

Bill: Yes, it is very important question, Brian. The commissioner and his senior leadership and the team at City Hall, we've been talking throughout the week preparing for election night and beyond. Look, none of us has a crystal ball to know what the result will be, but we've sure been given enough reason to be concerned by the president of United States suggesting he will not abide by the election result is absolutely sickening and unprecedented.

We're going to be prepared for a lot of protests, prolonged protest, potentially different protest groups confronting each other. It's too early to tell what that's going to look like. What we're going to emphasize is peaceful protests, as always is going to be respected and facilitated. Dependent on nothing, no regard for ideology,

anyone who's protesting, it's going to be respected. If anything turns violent, we're going to move to stop that immediately.

Our team at City Hall is going to be deeply involved in every decision that's made because this could be an unprecedented and even prolonged period. What I'd say to everyone is, even if we're entering the great unknown here, we need to use the power of peaceful protest and the legal system and all the things that ultimately I think will win the day. If the president of United States tries to ignore the election results, we all have to use every tool to stop that.

I think we will prevail. Violence is not going to help us get there. In fact, it will detract from our cause, and people have to understand and Dr. King and many others proved over the ages, the power of peaceful protest and how it ultimately wins the hearts and minds and that's what we're going to need here.

Brian: Alex in Greenpoint, you're on WNYC with the mayor. Hello, Alex.

Alex: Hello, how you're doing?

Brian: Hi, Alex. We're running out of time. Right to the point. Go ahead.

Alex: I'm just wondering why your office granted permits for the North Brooklyn pipeline to continue fracked gas pipeline through lines, neighborhoods of Brooklyn. It's dangerous.

Bill: Alex, my best information is that's not accurate. We're still assessing that project. I'm in the camp that thinks we need to move away from any investment in fossil fuel infrastructure. That's why the city pension funds are divesting from all fossil fuel investments. We've opposed previous pipelines. We're looking at this one now. There are some issues about what is going to be infrastructure we need on the way to getting away from fossil fuels once and for all.

No, I do not believe we've made a final decision. I'll double-check that and please give your information to WNYC so we can follow up, but I'm looking at that situation carefully. I think the basic approach this city and continues to take is to end investments in fossil fuel infrastructure and move to renewables.

Brian: We have time for one more question. It's going to come from Twitter and this to my eye looking very quickly down our Twitter feed, this seems to be the most tweeted or retweeted question we're getting for you this morning, Mr. Mayor. It says, "I'm actually thinking of calling into Brian Lehrer this week specifically to ask why the mayor is messing with a Mets sale, but I'm trying to remember that there are more important questions four days before the election." We're going to squeeze this one in from our sports section, Mr. Mayor, are you messing with the Mets sale with hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen.

Bill: It's a simple straightforward situation, Brian, and we'll have a resolution very soon. The law is the law. The city of New York, the people in New York City own the land the city fills on. The law says when there's an ownership change that has to be

an evaluation of whether the ownership is appropriate to continue to work with because it's a contractual dynamic. Our law department is doing that work. It's not about what anyone feels about any particular individual. The law department is going to make a determination, make it quickly. We'll announce it very quickly. That is something we would be obligated to do in any situation, and that's actually to protect the interest of the taxpayers in New York City.

Brian: What's the issue?

Bill: The issue always is that if you're going to have any organization or people involved doing business with, there has to be an appropriate decision on whether they pass muster. It's just part of the law, that needs to be done. That's what our law department is doing right now. Again, this will be a quick process and once we have a determination, we will make it public.

Brian: Pass muster in what way? You know the New York Post reported that you oppose the idea of a hedge fund billionaire buying a local team, period. Is there any truth to that and what are the criteria that they're vetting him for?

Bill: Again, whatever I feel personally is not the issue here. I've been saying that so clearly, so many times. This is a legal process, this is a legal requirement. The process is for our law department, which is a renowned organization. Really high quality, legal work done there on behalf of the people all the time, that they have to determine and do their due diligence if there's any outstanding concern based on what the law requires, is as simple as that. Again, they will come to that determination and we will publish it very soon.

Brian: Which is what because I haven't seen this in the other press accounts and I'm confused. I know a lot of Mets fans are confused and I've heard this come up on sports-talk even, which is what are these law department criteria that you're investigating Steve Cohen on. What are the questions?

Bill: Look, first of all, I want to say with empathy for Mets fans, I've been a baseball fan my whole life. I know Mets fans have suffered a lot. I know Mets fans really want to see the team do well in the future. I really respect the feeling, the passion people have. I come from a--

Brian: Their psyche in general about this guy, because they think he's going to throw a lot of money at it like the Steinbrenners do with the Yankees.

Bill: I won't even comment. I'll say I come from a team that suffered for many, many generations, and I know what it feels like. The bottom line is--

Brian: For people who don't know the team that wears red under their shoes, let's say, but go ahead.

Bill: That's right 86 long years. The bottom line is that the law addresses the question of who is allowed to do business with the City of New York and who is not. That's why the due diligence is done to determine if someone passes muster, basically. Again, the lawyers look at the law, look at the due diligence they've done

the research they've done, and they come to a conclusion very simple and something we do in many, many cases.

Brian: Right.

Bill: Obviously, when you're talking about land on which a stadium sits and such a prominent case, it's getting attention, it happens all the time, but in this case, it's getting attention.

Brian: Just to button it up, you can't tell us they're vetting him on what aspects of the law of being qualified under the law that would be at issue in this case.

Bill: Again, I think I'm saying it pretty clearly they have to determine if someone is appropriate to do business with. They have to do due diligence on that individual and their history. It's a pretty straightforward concept. It's not something I get in the middle of it's something the lawyers determine.

Brian: You have a date for that.

Bill: Brian, I impressed by your persistence, but again, real soon means real soon.

Brian: Okay. Mr. Mayor, thanks as always. Happy Halloween. Be safe.

Bill: Happy Halloween. Be safe. Stay outdoors, no indoor parties. Stay outdoors.

Brian: Talk to you next week.

Bill: Take care

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